In conventional electric devices and, in particular, electric hand-held devices an improved energy efficiency is desired. In particular with portable hand-held devices, as for example remote controls or cell phones, which provide batteries or accumulators for the energy supply, such a requirement exists in an intensified manner, since batteries or accumulators exhaust quickly. Increased energy efficiency would lower the current consumption, which results in a higher durability of the batteries or accumulators. In addition, improved energy efficiency would bring along an advantageous ecological effect since fewer batteries or accumulators, respectively, have to be introduced to waste disposal.
Conventional electric hand-held devices can be transferred or switched to a so called sleep mode when not in use. In the sleep mode all functions of the hand-held device are deactivated, which only are required during an operating phase of the hand-held device. In doing so, the power consumption of the electric hand-held device may be reduced considerably. During usage of the hand-held device it is transferred into an active mode, in which the complete functionality or operability of the device is available.
In order to transfer a hand-held device into the sleep mode on the one hand and to transfer it from the sleep mode into the active mode on the other hand it is known to provide switches and buttons at the hand-held device, with the help of which the respective mode may be activated manually. This has the disadvantage that hand-held devices, also when not in use, as for example in a computer mouse, often stay in an active mode since a manual activation or deactivation of the active mode appears to be relatively inconvenient or simply is forgotten. As a result, the desired improvement of the energy efficiency to a large extent is not reached.